DESCRIPTION (Applicant's Description, as modified by applicant) The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center is a matrix-based cancer center under the auspices of the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC). The Director of the Cancer Center is also Director of the Eppley Institute for Cancer Research and reports directly to the Chancellor of UNMC and is responsible for coordinating cancer research within UNMC. The UNMC Eppley Cancer Center has 137 faculty members from UNMC, University of Nebraska-Lincoln and University of Nebraska-Omaha. The total amount of peer-reviewed funded research for Cancer Center members, as defined by the CCSG guidelines, is $11.96 million in annual direct costs, of which $5.64 million (or 47%) is awarded by NCI including an NCI-sponsored Special Program of Excellence (SPORE) in GI Cancer. Since the last CCSG submission, the amount of NCI funding and total peer- review funding has increased 92% and 129%, respectively. The research base of the UNMC Eppley Cancer Center includes basic and translational research in three programs: 1) the Molecular, Cellular, and Structural Biology Program (MCSBP), studies alterations in tumor cells that interfere with gene expression and signal transduction pathways, adhesion and metastasis, and nucleic acid and protein structure; 2) the Molecular and Biochemical Etiology Program (MBEP) studies the mechanism of action of carcinogens, their metabolic activation and inactivation, their interaction with DNA, and the identification of genes involved in the development of cancer; and 3) the Developmental Therapeutics Program (DTP) which studies the etiology, biology, and novel treatments of hematopoietic malignancies and cancers (involving investigators participating in the NCI SPORE in GI cancer), the biology of hematopoietic and immune reconstitution following stem cell transplantation, and the development of new cytotoxic agents and novel drug delivery systems.